


Decoy

by Thursday26



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: BAMF saeko, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Random OCs - Freeform, Tanaka Ryuunosuke is a Good Friend, tanaka and nishinoya are good senpais
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22851187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thursday26/pseuds/Thursday26
Summary: Kageyama and HInata are confronted by some thugs on the way home from school.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 71





	Decoy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sarahenany](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahenany/gifts).



> wrote this for my lovely friend sarah! it's been written for a long time, but i'm so happy it's finally getting out there! there is kagehina if you squint, but the pairings aren't important for this fic! it's just about them being bros <3

“Oi, Karasuno,” someone calls. Tobio ignores the call, but Hinata looks around for the source of the voice. It’s another late night after practice. They both stayed later, getting some extra touches on the ball, and the sun is already starting to set. There’s only a few more blocks before Hinata gets on his bike and heads off over the mountain and Tobio turns to walk the short distance home, like they do every night.

They’re still illuminated by street lights, but sleepy Miyagi is already hunkered down for the night, the streets empty except for himself and Hinata, and the small group of mean-looking guys sitting just outside of the streetlight. There’s three of them and Tobio is immediately on edge, not liking the mean looks they have on their faces. 

Hinata ducks his head when he realizes who called out Karasuno and tries to keep on walking. “Oi, I’m talking to you, Shrimpy.”

“Buzz off,” Tobio says, wishing that he was on Hinata’s other side, between him and the strangers. Instead, Hinata’s bike is between him and Hinata. 

The one who spoke snaps his attention to Tobio. He’s frowning at Tobio, but Tobio’s seen scarier faces from Daichi. This guy, though, he’s got bleached hair that’s cut short and a piercing over his left eyebrow. He’s obviously the leader of this pack, the remaining two flanking just behind him, trying to look intimidating as well. The one on the guy’s left has red hair that’s too red to be real and a bandage on his jaw. The other guy has a shaved head and is cracking his knuckles, which are adorned with rings. “What’d you say to me?” Eyebrow-Piercing growls. 

“Buzz off,” Tobio repeats slowly. 

“Hey, he’s the setter for Karasuno,” Red Hair says.

Eyebrow Piercing hums. “You’re right. It’s easy to forget him with that tiny middle jumping around.”

Tobio grabs onto Hinata’s arm and starts tugging him along. “Buzz off.” 

“Hey, hey,” Eyebrow says, him and his pack shuffling around them so they’re blocking their path. Tobio’s nostrils flare. “I don’t want any problems here.” His voice is too sweet, forced. Tobio tenses. “I just have a debt to settle with the Chibi here, and I guess you too, Mr. Setter.” 

“We don’t owe you anything. Now move,” Tobio says. 

Eyebrow’s eyes flash with annoyance. “See, that’s not very nice,” he growls. “I want to settle this all civilized-like.”

“Like you know what that means,” Tobio growls back. 

Eyebrow’s nostrils flare. “Listen here, you little shit–”

“I don’t think I will,” Tobio cuts him off, pushing Hinata to the side and attempting to walk around the group. “Let’s go.” 

Strong hands grab the front of his shirt and tug him back and he’s brought close enough to smell the garlic on Rings’ breath. He has a deep frown on his face and makes sure to shake Tobio a bit. Tobio grimaces and grabs onto the hands, like he’ll be able to get the guy to release him. “You fucking shit–” he growls, voice deeper than Tobio expected it to be. If these guys are still in high school, they’re probably third years. 

“Now, now, Sho,” Eyebrow says, putting a hand on Rings’–Sho’s–shoulder. Sho lowers his shoulders, but doesn’t release Tobio. “We can’t beat him up first, we need our money.” 

“We don’t owe you  _ shit,” _ Tobio growls, squirming in Sho’s hold.

“No, you owe us ¥50 000,” Eyebrow says. 

“I’ve never seen you before in my life,” Tobio snarls. “I’m not giving you a single yen.” 

“No, no, no, no,” Eyebrow says quickly. “You owe us that money because  _ you’re _ the ones who cost us that when you beat Seijoh. No one expected you to win, it was gonna be a big payout, but now we’re down ¥50 000 and it’s all your fault.” 

“Not my fault you suck at betting,” Tobio shoots back, somewhat surprised that people are betting on their games. Eyebrow doesn’t look impressed and Sho shakes him again. 

Then someone starts laughing. It’s weird… it sounds like Hinata’s laugh. Tobio carefully looks over and sure enough, Hinata is laughing hysterically, wiping at his eyes like he’s crying from laughing so hard and holding onto his stomach. What the fuck is he doing?! Tobio frowns and looks around, confused. Where’s his bike? He swore Hinata had it a moment ago.

“You guys are so lame!” Hinata says and Tobio’s mouth falls open. What is he  _ doing?! _ “Betting on high school volleyball and  _ losing! _ You’re so lame!” 

“Karasuno hasn’t won in years,” Eyebrow growls.

“Can’t even research properly,” Hinata sighs, shaking his head like he pities the guy. Eyebrow’s face turns red. Tobio is staring dumbly at his friend. Is this the same guy who hides behind Tanaka-senpai whenever they see Oikawa? 

“You little–” Red Hair says, making a grab for Hinata, but he steps out of reach easily. 

Hinata laughs, sticking his tongue out at Red hair. “Missed me!” Red Hair lunges, but Hinata side-steps again. “Missed me, again! Wow, your moves are as slow as your brains.”

Sho drops Tobio and he stumbles, suddenly getting his feet underneath him again, and watches as all three thugs go for Hinata, who keeps on moving just out of reach, yelling taunts at them and making them angrier and angrier. Tobio has no idea what to do. Should he go for help? Should he help Hinata? He has no idea. Leaving Hinata feels wrong, but Ukai-san’s store is close by. It might be closed, but someone should be able to help. 

Just as Tobio’s about to take off for Ukai-san’s family store, Sho manages to get hold of Hinata’s shirt, stopping the chase in its tracks. Hinata is still smiling, but Tobio can see that he’s terrified. His hands are shaking as he’s lifted off the ground, but he’s  _ still  _ taunting the bully. “You’re so dumb.”

“Just kick his ass,” Eyebrow says. 

Tobio goes cold. They can’t beat up Hinata. He can’t let that happen. “Oh, so scary,” Hinata says, smile still on his face, even if his eyes are wide with fear. 

Then it happens in slow motion: Sho’s arm pulls back, hand curled into a fist, and snaps forward, connecting with Hinata’s jaw seconds before Tobio can restrain that arm. The cry that Hinata lets out on impact burns something inside Tobio. 

“Stop!” Tobio yells, grabbing the guy’s arm when it pulls back a second time, but not for long. Someone comes up behind him and holds him back, pinning his arms. “No!” Tobio says, watching helplessly as Hinata is hit again. This time Hinata’s nose starts to bleed. He coughs, blood flying from his mouth. 

Eyebrow takes a step back with a grunt of disgust. “He’s getting blood on me.” Sho drops Hinata, who crumples to the ground, looking slightly dazed. Eyebrow pulls his leg back and kicks Hinata in the gut. He coughs, wheezing, like the air’s been knocked out of him, and Tobio is screaming. He can’t do anything but watch. Hinata, even in the state he’s in, grabs onto Eyebrow’s leg, wrapping himself around it so he can’t be kicked again. 

“Hey!” someone calls.

“Shit,” Eyebrow curses, trying to shake off Hinata, who seems to have tightened his grip. Tobio tears his eyes from Hinata and sees… Saeko-neesan? She’s got murder in her eyes and she beelines straight for Eyebrow, followed closesly by Noya-senpai and Tanaka-senpai. They look less than impressed and Tobio has a moment to wonder if Noya-senpai is scarier than Daichi. 

Saeko-neesan tackles Eyebrow to the ground, gripping him by the collar while Tanaka-senpai goes for Sho and Noya-senpai heads toward Tobio. It all happens so quickly. Red Hair lets go of Tobio and he stumbles forward. There’s a cry of surprise and he looks back long enough to see that Noya-senpai has jumped on Red Hair, yelling something about attacking his kouhais. 

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Saeko-neesan yells in Eyebrow’s face.

“Get off me, you crazy bitch!” Eyebrow yells back. She delivers a solid punch to his chin for that. He cries out in pain at the contact.

“Doesn’t feel so good, huh?!” she screams. 

“Get off!”

Tobio steps around the fray to get to Hinata, who is sitting up and watching the madness with unfocused eyes. “Hinata?” Tobio asks gently. 

Hinata blinks and his eyes clear. He looks directly at Tobio and smiles, blood still on his face, looking relieved. “Good, you didn’t get hurt.” 

Tobio’s mouth drops open. “I…? I didn’t get hurt?!” Tobio repeats incredulously. “You  _ idiot _ ,  _ you  _ got hurt!” Carefully, Tobio puts a hand on Hinata’s face and turns his head to see the full extent of the damage. His nose is bleeding, but it doesn’t seem to be broken. “Why did you do that?”

Hinata opens his mouth, but Saeko-neesan’s voice cuts through the air. She’s kicking at the retreating thugs. “Yeah, and if I even see your faces, I don’t care  _ where, _ I’ll drop-kick you straight to the moon!” The trio scuttle off, looking pretty battered. Noya-senpai and Tanaka-senpai are flanking her like guard dogs, growling at their retreating backs. 

When they disappear around the corner, Saeko-neesan turns on them and grabs Hinata’s face. “What were you guys  _ doing  _ taking on hoods like that?” she asks, brow creased with worry. 

“Neesan, be careful,” Tanaka-senpai says, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. His knuckles look a little bruised. Noya-senpai has a fresh bruise on his jaw, but he looks fired up. “He got hit, you can’t be shaking him like that.” 

“I know that,” she hisses, her hold gentling on Hinata. “I’m just worried. What were you thinking?” she asks softly.

“Well, these guys came out of nowhere saying that we owed them money because they lost betting on us to lose, but that’s not our fault, and then they had hold of Kageyama and I didn’t want him to get hurt!” Hinata says quickly.

“So you got them to hurt you instead?” Tobio asks incredulously. 

“Well, yeah,” Hinata shrugs. “I’ll heal.” 

If Hinata hadn’t already been punched in the face, Tobio is sure that he would have done just that. “You’re an idiot,” he says, pulling out his handkerchief and starting to clean some of the blood off Hinata’s face. 

“Ow! Not so rough!” Hinata whines. Tobio huffs and tries to be more gentle, but he’s not good at being gentle. 

“Don’t rub. Just pat.  _ Gently,”  _ Noya-senpai instructs from behind him. Tobio does as he says and it seems to be working, Hinata relaxing. Saeko-neesan is petting Hinata, her fingers running through his hair. 

“How did you guys find us?” Tobio asks, just now realizing that it’s weird that the three of them showed up out of nowhere. 

“Oh,” Tanaka-senpai says, “Hinata messaged me. Said there was trouble and me and Noya were hanging out and Neesan wouldn’t let us go alone. Good thing too, Hinata wasn’t really clear about what was happening, just that you were in trouble.” 

“Yeah,” Noya-senpai adds, “his directions weren’t even that clear. We had to follow the yelling.”

Tobio sighs. “Thank you. I didn’t know what to do.” 

“It’s not a big deal,” Tanaka-senpai says. “You’re our teammates, we look out for one another.” 

“Thank you anyway,” Tobio insists, unable to articulate how grateful he is that they could do something when he was helpless. 

Saeko-neesan stands up suddenly. “Well, come on. You two are coming home with us. We’ll call your parents from our house.” 

Tobio blinks at her, “But–”

Noya-senpai holds up a hand, “Don’t argue with her. We’ll have some ice cream and ice packs and make sure that everything is okay. We don’t have classes tomorrow anyway and Ryuu has a spare room.” 

“You don’t need to–” Hinata tries.

“I  _ said _ let’s go,” Saeko-neesan says over him. He gives Tobio a wide-eyed look and Tobio shrugs. It seems pointless to argue. “Ryuu, get Hinata’s bike,” she orders and, like that, they’re heading for the Tanaka household. 

* * *

Tobio didn’t realize how close Tanaka-senpai and Saeko-neesan’s house was. He wonders how Hinata knew that, but he’s grateful for the company. His parents weren’t thrilled that he was staying over at a friend’s house on such short notice, but after Saeko-neesan spoke with them for a minute, they were on board. Hinata’s parents were a lot more amenable, only asking for the address and Saeko-neesan’s phone number. Through an unspoken agreement, no one told any of the parents what happened. 

Saeko-neesan makes a run to the convenience store for ice cream and ice packs, and they have a fun night together. Everyone but Tobio gets an ice pack. Saeko-neesan iced her wrist after explaining that she jammed it hitting that thug in the jaw. Noya-senpai iced his knuckles and his face, with Tanaka-senpai getting his own knuckles. Hinata got one for his jaw and nose. They all talked and joked, Tobio eating his ice cream silently. He feels stupid. He didn’t help at all. And he feels even more stupid when he doesn’t need to take an ice pack. Nothing happened to him. 

They had a fun night together, after ice cream and ice packs: Saeko-neesan brought out a board game that ended in a yelling match. Then they switched to Tanaka-senpai’s console, taking turns and ribbing each other. Hinata eventually puts an ice pack over his stomach and spends a fair bit of the night pestering Tobio, which is fine, even if it’s annoying. Tobio is just grateful that Hinata feels well enough to bother him. It’s almost like nothing happened. When it was time to go to bed,Tanaka-senpai lent them clothes for sleep, Hinata borrowing some from Noya-senpai. Apparently Noya-senpai keeps a couple changes of clothes here, just in case. 

Later, lying in the same bed as Hinata, Tobio can’t sleep. He tries not to toss and turn. The Tanakas only have one spare futon at the moment and Noya-senpai is using it in Tanaka-senpai’s room. The spare bed is large enough for the both of them, especially considering how tiny Hinata is. It would’ve made more sense to have Hinata and Noya-senpai share a bed, but the arrangements were made without a second thought. 

“Can’t sleep?” Hinata whispers, making Tobio freeze. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you up,” Tobio whispers back.

“I can’t sleep either,” Hinata says. Tobio frowns and turns over so he’s looking at Hinata’s face. There’s a small sliver of moonlight coming in from the window, otherwise the room is completely dark. Hinata’s eyes almost glow, though, wide and watching him. 

“Are you in pain?” Tobio asks. “We can ask Saeko-neesan for painkillers.” 

Hinata shakes his head. “I’m not hurting. I’m just… thinking.” 

“Thinking?”

Hinata nods. “Yeah. I can’t stop thinking about earlier, when that guy had ahold of you. I was so scared.” 

“Dumbass, you’re the one who got hurt,” Tobio frowns. “I just got shaken around a little bit.”

Hinata sighs, like that’s good news. “Still, I keep on worrying.”

“Worrying?”

“They were really scary-looking and you kept on insulting them,” Hinata whispers. “I thought they were going to hurt you and I couldn’t let that happen.”

“So you got hurt instead?” Tobio wonders if his eyes can fall out of his head from how wide they are.

Hinata gives a sheepish laugh. “They weren’t supposed to catch me. I knew Tanaka-senpai lived close by and I just needed to buy time.” 

Tobio huffs. “You’re a moron, you know that?” Hinata gives him an offended look and before he can think about it, he gathers Hinata into his arms. Hinata tenses for a second, then relaxes into the embrace. “You’re such a dumbass. I didn’t even need an ice pack tonight.” 

“Good,” Hinata sighs, his body relaxing further. “That’s exactly what I wanted.” Then he’s asleep. 

Tobio blinks at him, or rather, at the top of his head. Did Hinata really sacrifice himself for Tobio? Why would he do that? Tobio’s heart flutters as he considers the reasons why, but he’s not sure why it does. He doesn’t fall asleep right away, but his blinks get longer and longer until he falls into a deep sleep, Hinata safe in his arms. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, hope you enjoyed it! please leave a kudos or a comment <3


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